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The SsangYong Korando sends out mixed messages, and I don’t mean, “It’s a family car that looks like a sports car”. Large, high-riding and flat-faced, it looks like the car for someone who wants to be seen driving a Volvo but can’t afford one. I don’t understand it, since it’s a kind of symbol without the status, and what exactly does that symbolise?
Everything about it, especially its rather compacted SUV-style, shouts “responsible road user”: “I’m bulky but not too bulky, I can tow a boat but would never collide with a bull, I care about my own children and the world’s children.” Yet the fuel consumption feels greater than necessary, and not responsible at all, more in the region of a Lexus or drunk driver.
If you forget the macro questions – who would drive it, and why? – at a micro level, it works, often well, sometimes appealingly, occasionally beautifully. The automatic gears are smooth, momentarily-forget-you’re-driving smooth. Front-wheel drive comes with a 4×4 option: you have a lot of control if you want it.
The cabin was spacious back and front, and all the seats were heated – which I think is almost unprecedented, the world of seat-heating cleaving to the puzzling principle that back-seat passengers don’t deserve warm butts. The interior was leatherised; everything – including the gear-stick – came from a cow. Although it doesn’t have an outlandish number of seats, it encourages the large gesture, and I was constantly offering people lifts. The boot was gigantic and could have fitted a whole other family in there, if it weren’t for those pesky seatbelt regulations.
The two-tonne towing weight is a huge deal, given the amount they go on about it in the literature, and I was sorry not to own anything heavy enough to put it to the test. There is a lot of “you’re near another vehicle” alarm-system beeping; that stuff, I’ve decided, was conceived for wide-open roads, where the proximity of another car would indeed be something to write home about. In a UK city, you’ll be beeping and cursing most of the time. The other internal stuff was good: clear, classy seven-inch screen; intuitive, speedy satnav; controls where you expect them.
I remain, I’m afraid, unpersuaded of the place in the world for a budget SUV: if you want a car on a budget, buy a car that isn’t needlessly large. If, however, you can see the point exactly, this is a good place to start.
Ssangyong Korando: in numbers
Price £22,495
Top speed 115mph
Acceleration 0-62mph in 9.9 seconds
Combined fuel consumption 41.5mpg
CO2 emissions 177g/km
Eco rating 5/10
Cool rating 6/10
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On the road: ‘It sends off mixed messages’ – SsangYong Korando car review
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